Solar Powered Wii: Go Outside and Play
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03.21.07
Gaming consoles use a lot of power; another reason to tell the kids to go play outside. Here is a way to kill a couple of birds with one stone: Send them outside with a solar powered Wii.
The kids at Tom's Hardware Guide built this prototype; Rob Wright says "It's a simple invention on many levels. For one, it didn't cost much at all to find a battery, power converter and appropriately-sized solar power panel. And the station itself is just wood with a couple of wheels and a coat of blue paint slapped on. For this purposes of this experiment, we decided to keep the costs low and create a repeatable formula in case anyone else wanted to try something similar."
It only has a 20 watt panel while the Wii and Monitor together draw 180 watts, so it needs a lot of time in the sun before the action begins. They also run the power through an inverter to get it to 120 AC which then goes through power bricks to go back to low voltage DC, which wastes a lot of juice; it is not hard to find 12 volt displays and sound systems. Fully charged, the battery will run the works for eight hours; with a bigger solar panel, perhaps a pop-up wind turbine, and a microwave oven for popcorn, they could go all night. ::TwitchGuru and ::Toms Hardware via ::Trendhunter
Hopefully, the Amish kids are all over this.
My inner-curmudgeon says that the solar panels should be serving some higher purpose, but I would rather listen to my inner-kid.
What would be even cooler is if the Wii could be powered by the human-produced, kinetic energy of the nunchuck/wand play.
Hmm. Very interesting but the Wiimotes sometimes have issues functioning in direct sunlight.
Why not just hook it up to a stationary bike with a generator attached? As long as they peddle, they play. Although I do know some f the Wii games are played standing. Perhaps a PS3 then.
Maybe once the kids are outside waving those wiimotes around, they'll realize that they could actually play and compete without the Wii at all--whether the sun is out or not.
um.....
my wii uses 17 watts.....
my lcd tv uses 30 watts....
where does this mysterious 180 watts come from??
(great job on the project, i'm jealous)
um.....
my wii uses 17 watts.....
my lcd tv uses 30 watts....
where does this mysterious 180 watts come from??
(great job on the project, i'm jealous)
You can totally use a 100 watt panel easy, just hook it up. It is not rocket scincee
@uncleben
Maybe you should covert 47W @ 120V to 12V, then tack on the inverter efficiency. Theres nothing mysterious about it at all. You'll soon discover that 180W @ 12V would be more accurate.
greenpeace wiis. very intersting.